Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with a given market, it
also conducts a STEP analysis.
he social category incorporates all issues related to public perception and
behavior. his is a broad category that naturally exhibits a degree of over-
lap with the other STEP categories. For example, the aluence of a nation
(an economic variable) tends to shape public perspectives on environmental
governance and this in turn inluences voting patterns and civic behavior.
Simply put, richer nations are less willing to accept environmental degrada-
tion as a necessary cost associated with economic development. Moreover,
aluent societies tend to exhibit a higher willingness to pay for clean energy
technologies. So although aluence is an economic variable, aluence also
shapes social behavior and when it does, the behavioral manifestation
becomes a social variable. For the purposes of this study, common social
inluences include elements such as perspectives on wind power technology,
cultural it, environmental philosophies, strength of community activism,
education levels, worker proiles, and mass media modus operandi, to name
but a few.
he technology category incorporates all issues pertaining to the evolu-
tion of energy technology. Obviously, this category too exhibits a degree
of overlap with other STEP categories. For example, the presence of a pool
of experienced nuclear engineers (a social variable—education) tends to
increase the chances that nuclear power will receive government support.
However, the presence of nuclear engineers also enables evolution of the
technology, and therefore inluences the technological progression of
nuclear power systems. In this sense, it becomes a technological variable.
For the purposes of this study, common technological inluences include
elements such as the availability of skilled labor, geographic conditions that
favor one technology over another, domestic resource availability, electric-
ity sector structuring, and the presence of domestic manufacturing capabil-
ity in given technologies.
he economic category incorporates issues of general economic con-
cern (i.e., a nation's industrial proile) and forces that inluence the eco-
nomics of the energy sector. For example, some nations (i.e., Japan) host
energy-intensive industries that depend on cheap energy lows to support
international competitiveness. his gives rise to an industrial lobby that
has extensive inluence on energy policy. he economics of the energy sec-
tor are also inluenced by a number of forces from other STEP categories
such as the presence of government subsidies (a political variable) or the
importance of a given energy technology in terms of employment (a social
variable). For the purposes of this study, common economic factors include
